Re: UK and Poland, religious instruction under attack

W dniu 2025-04-24 o 02:28, andal pisze:

In the United Kingdom various associations are complaining that
religious instruction is being neglected. There is a shortage of
teachers (recruitment ceased in 2011) and the new Labour government
does not seem intent on remedying this. While in Poland, the Church is
appealing against the Tusk government's changes aimed at marginalising
religious instruction.
 
The social-labourists of the United Kingdom and the liberal-socialists
of Poland are discriminating against the Catholic religion and
attacking the Christian memory of their countries, in the name of a
suicidal secularism and an alleged ‘non-discrimination’ that
marginalises, penalises and discriminates only against Christian
believers and in particular Catholics.
 
The new Education Secretary of the British Labour government has been
asked in recent days to seriously address the issue of Religious
Education (RE) in schools. The National Association of Teachers of
Religious Education (NATRE) has warned the government that ‘religious
education is the most neglected subject in terms of resources’, despite
a growing interest on the part of pupils and an increase in pupils
aspiring to obtain the General Certificate of Secondary Education
(GCSE) in Religious Studies (Rs), specific courses to be able to later
also teach religion. Earlier this year, Ofsted, the public agency
overseeing school education, warned that a number of schools in England
would fail to meet the legal requirement to teach religious education
in all classes.
 
English law requires that the curriculum provides for religious
instruction in state-funded schools, while not specifically teaching a
religion, must reflect the fact that ‘religious traditions in Britain
are primarily Christian’.
 
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Sir Martyn Oliver, had
already reminded us last April of the need for a ‘robust religious
education curriculum’ for the cultural development of pupils and the
future cohesion of the country. The increased interest of families and
pupils in religious instruction, and the Labour government's
corresponding silence in hiring new religious education teachers,
prompted various associations to launch an appeal to ask the executive
for a National Plan that would enhance religious instruction and
teachers in this subject. Bridget Phillipson, Education Secretary,
pledged last July to recruit 6,500 new teachers by 2024, but made no
mention of increasing the number of religious education teachers, whose
recruitment has been at a standstill since 2011. The Labour
government's plans are well outlined in the election programme:
‘Increased access to sports and arts education, along with a strong
literacy and numeracy core, plus the introduction of a new focus on
digital skills, speaking and listening skills’.
 
Religious instruction, so necessary if it emphasised the country's
Christian roots, appears, however, neither tolerated by the new social-
liberal Labourism, nor by that Islamist part of the electorate that
allowed Prime Minister Keir Starmer to win with a large majority.
 
Donald Tusk's Poland is striding along the same perilous path, that of
writing a new page in the country's history, cutting off its religious
roots and traditions in the name of an abused freedom, secularism and
non- discrimination of others.
 
In the Polish educational system, religious instruction usually
consists of teaching the Catholic catechism, with teachers and
programmes chosen by the Church, but the lessons are hosted and
financed by State schools, and are widely attended even if they remain
optional. On 22 March, the Minister of Education, Barbara Nowacka, had
removed the marks obtained in religion lessons from pupils' final
grades. According to the Tusk government's August amendments, when
fewer than seven pupils express a wish to receive religious
instruction, schools would be authorised to reduce religion classes by
merging them with pupils from different year groups, with the danger of
marginalising religious instruction and reducing the number of
teachers.
 
In mid-August, the Catholic Church and the Polish Ecumenical Council,
which represents minority Christian denominations, had asked the
President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska, to submit a motion
to the Constitutional Tribunal to verify the constitutionality of the
changes. On 30 August, the constitutional judges issued an interim
order suspending the government's planned changes to the organisation
of religious instruction in schools. In recent days, the President of
the Republic, Andrzej Duda, has warned the governing liberal-socialist
coalition that removing the teaching of religion from school education
‘would remove an inalienable part of being Polish’ and of the nation's
historical and popular traditions, which cannot be renounced.

 
And?